Oklahoma governor signs Texas-style ban on most abortions

Oklahoma’s Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt has signed a Texas-style abortion ban that prohibits abortions after about six weeks of being pregnant

By SEAN MURPHY Related Press

3 Could 2022, 23:03

• 4 min read

OKLAHOMA CITY -- Oklahoma’s Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt signed a Texas-style abortion ban on Tuesday that prohibits abortions after about six weeks of being pregnant, part of a nationwide push in GOP-led states hopeful that the conservative U.S. Supreme Courtroom will uphold new restrictions.

“I want Oklahoma to be probably the most pro-life state in the country," Stitt tweeted after signing the invoice.

Stitt's signing of the bill comes on the heels of a leaked draft opinion from the nation's excessive court that it's considering weakening or overturning the landmark Roe v. Wade determination that legalized abortion nearly 50 years in the past.

The invoice Stitt signed takes effect instantly along with his signature, and the Oklahoma Supreme Court docket on Tuesday denied an emergency request to quickly halt the bill. Abortion suppliers say now that the new law is in impact, they will immediately stop providing providers for women after six weeks of pregnancy.

“Whereas the regulation is in impact, which it now is because the governor signed it, abortion companies after six weeks shall be largely unavailable," said Rabia Muqaddam, a workers attorney for the New York-based Center for Reproductive Rights, which is representing Oklahoma abortion providers within the case. “It’s a short-term loss, however we’re hopeful that the Oklahoma Supreme Court will nonetheless grant us relief."

The new legislation prohibits abortions once cardiac exercise will be detected in an embryo, which experts say is roughly six weeks right into a being pregnant, before many ladies know they're pregnant. An identical bill accepted in Texas last year led to a dramatic reduction within the number of abortions carried out in that state, with many ladies going to Oklahoma and different surrounding states for the procedure.

Dr. Iman Alsaden, the medical director of Planned Parenthood Great Plains, mentioned Texas' legislation that took effect in September has given their staff an concept of what a post-Roe nation may appear to be.

“Since that day, my colleagues and I have recurrently handled sufferers who're fleeing their communities to hunt care," Alsaden mentioned. “They’re taking time without work of work, taking trip of faculty and taking time away from their household tasks to get the care that till September 2021 they had been in a position to get safely and readily of their communities."

The invoice authorizes abortions if carried out as the result of a medical emergency, but there aren't any exceptions if the pregnancy is the results of rape or incest.

Like the Texas regulation, the Oklahoma invoice would allow non-public citizens to sue abortion providers or anybody who helps a lady receive an abortion for up to $10,000. After the U.S. Supreme Court allowed that mechanism to stay in place, other Republican-led states sought to repeat Texas’ ban. Idaho’s governor signed the primary copycat measure in March, although it has been briefly blocked by the state’s Supreme Court docket.

Stitt earlier this yr signed a invoice to make performing an abortion a felony crime in Oklahoma, but that measure is just not set to take impact until this summer time, and authorized experts say it is likely to be blocked because the Roe v. Wade decision still remains the legislation of the land.

The number of abortions carried out each year in Oklahoma, which has four abortion clinics, has declined steadily over the last two decades, from more than 6,200 in 2002 to three,737 in 2020, the fewest in more than 20 years, based on knowledge from the Oklahoma State Department of Health. In 2020, before the Texas legislation was passed, about 9% of the abortions performed in Oklahoma have been women from Texas.

Before the Texas ban took impact on Sept. 1, about 40 girls from Texas had abortions carried out in Oklahoma every month, the information shows. That number jumped to 222 Texas girls in September and 243 in October.